


I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight

by GadSul



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Comedy (I hope)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:14:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23253037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GadSul/pseuds/GadSul
Summary: Calaniel is great with horses but not so bright in kitchens (unless you're talking about the fires she starts, those are pretty bright). A disaster with legs, sometimes actually six (but whatever), and troublemaker extraordinaire, it's this girl and none other who gets sent to the West Marches to make a delivery of food and supplies. And they're all going to have to deal with it.
Kudos: 1





	I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight

The first time that he saw her, she came from the West in the evening, the setting sun accentuating her silhouette, long dark hair flying behind her. She had just come into full view and her golden tinted skin, dark eyes lit with green, tangled black hair could all be seen. No words were spoken between them before the whizz of an arrow was heard and slammed into her back (there was a backpack, don't worry. It was full of peaches), the force of which caused her to pitch off her horse, straight into Beleg's arms.

He stumbled back under her weight, tumbling down in a tangle of arms and legs. When he was able to regain some composure, she was lying on top of him, an arrow sticking out of her bulky backpack.

Her eyes looked into his, and the first words out her mouth, "Looks like you've just fallen for me," she said, every syllable flirted with a bit of a grin curling her lips.

And then, if there was any bit of interest, it dissipated like a drop of water on a sunny rock at noon.

He sat up and she fell back with a small yelp.

Getting up, he brushed himself off a bit before offering a hand. "Are you alright? That was quite the fall."

She shrugged, seeming a bit flustered. "I'm fine. I'm pretty durable." She took his hand, almost tripping again.

He reached behind her to withdraw the arrow, trying to minimize the rip. Juice from the fruit inside had started to stain the bag. The fletching was gray and the shaft pale. It was an elvish arrow. A distance away, a younger archer was trotting up, waving a hand.

"My apologies, Cúthalion, lady," he stopped, panting lightly. "I wasn't expecting anyone to come riding up as I shot."

"Your indifference could have cost a life, Nibendîr." Beleg said as he handed the arrow back.

Nibendîr dropped his head of loose brown waves. "Again, my apologies."

"Why were you practicing so close to a lodge?" Beleg questioned.

Nibendîr shrugged. "I guess I thought no one was around." He said and looked up again, sending a glance to the new arrival, but she only had eyes for Beleg. He noticed the way her eyes roved over the chief march warden. That was... unprecedented.

Beleg felt the gaze too, though he didn't acknowledge it. Nibendîr required his attention. "Keep archery practice to the range. For the sake of other's lives, always assume there are people around."

Nibendir might act lightheaded most of the time, but he felt the reprimand. Beleg could see that from the way his cheeks flushed and lips pouted.

He was the son of a councilor of Thingol. A coddled, thoughtless, nobleman. Beleg tried to be patient, but he was tired of having to put up with the boy's total lack of understanding that this wasn't court, this wasn't a field trip. This was the March. Siege or no siege, war couldn't help but be ever at the back of his mind. But in the meantime. He told Nibendîr to relocate to the training fields and keep practicing before turning his attention to the newcomer.

He surveyed her for a moment. She seemed to have finished her appraisal of him and was staring absently around. Her horse was nowhere to be found. "Your name?" He asked.

She turned wide eyes to him. "Huh?"

"I asked for your name. And what are you doing here?"

She gave a sort of smirk. "You want to get to know me already?" A little giggle, "That's kinda personal, you know."

He was at a loss. "Asking for your name?"

"Well yeah," She rubbed the back of her neck.

Beleg took a moment to steel himself against being surrounded by utter nincompoops for an undetermined amount of time.

"Do you want me to call you 'girl' or 'idiot' or something like that?" He was already worn out from Nibendîr. _Nienna give me strength._

She laughed again, "Already giving me pet names? We're getting awfully familiar here aren't we?"

_Nienna..._

A person ran up from around the lodge. "Beleg, was there a commotion? I heard a horse scream." Oh finally, a sane, sensible person. Dorneth was a captain, and one of Beleg's close friends.

The newcomer answered, "Oh it was just Beleg and I here getting to know each other."

Dorneth squinted. "What?"

Beleg cleared his throat and sent Dorneth a look. She came up next to him.

"What's up with her?" She whispered.

"It seems we have a slough of simpletons," he whispered back to her.

Dorneth leaned back a fraction and raised her brows.

He gave her a sideways look before turning his attention back to the girl. "Alright, enough playing around. What's your name and what purpose brings you to the West Marches?"

"Uh, my name's Calaniel and I was supposed to bring like food, supplies, and stuff. I don't really know what, but there were a bunch of bags that the cooks put on my horse." She turned as if to reach for something and then realized that her horse was gone. "Oh drat, I should have known Dregaril would run off at the earliest convenience," she kicked at a stick on the ground. "She's probably halfway back to Menegroth by now."

Dorneth and Beleg glanced at each other.

"Dregaril?" Dorneth questioned.

Calaniel nodded, "Yeah that's my horse," she chuckled. "She's a bit of a handful, but I love her all the same."

"She must be quite the handful indeed if you named her _to flee_." Dorneth remarked.

Calaniel shrugged and laughed again. It was an odd, nervous laugh. Nervous about what, neither of them could figure.

Beleg sighed and continued. "So your horse ran off with the supplies and left you here."

"Not all of the supplies," Calaniel smiled brightly and slung the pack from her shoulders. "I thought the peaches were most important so I made sure to keep them with me." She extended the bulging bag towards them, the smile still on her face.

Dorneth tried not to purse her lips as she took the pack. "Well, thanks. If you'd like to come with me, we can see to getting you back to the city."

Another glance at Beleg and a look of alarm crossed Calaniel's features. "But--But it's evening, nearly night. You can't expect a mere slip of a girl like me to make it back through the deep dark forest all alone, do you?" Her eyes were wide in what she must have thought to be a winsome expression.

"You rode up here alone with no problem." Beleg said, a little desperate to send her on her way.

"That was... light time then." She began.

"We can spare someone to ride back with you if that would ease your mind," Dorneth offered, trying to keep her tone polite.

Calaniel looked shocked. Or, tried to look shocked. There was an insincerity, or a melodrama to all her expressions. "Why, sending a young girl like me alone into the woods unaccompanied except by some man?"

Dorneth laid a hand over chest. "I'm a woman. There are female March-Wardens we can send with you."

Calaniel went of as if she hadn't heard, "The very idea," she put the back of her hand to her forehead and brushed back wisps of hair.

"She's quite right, of course," Another voice piped up.

Beleg and Dorneth turned to see Nibendîr standing behind them.

"I thought I sent you to the archery range." Beleg said, unamused.

Nibendîr waved a hand. "Well, I had to stay and make sure our newcomer was properly taken care of. And I'm glad I did. We certainly cannot allow this young lady to be escorted by any rough March-Warden. T'would be most inappropriate."

 _This "young lady" is kitchen help at best._ Beleg thought. _And I'll have to look into what children are being taught these days because I cannot for the life of me figure out what would be "inappropriate" about escorting someone home._

"It would never be tolerated back at court," Nibendir continued.

_I've been alive and and in possession of good morals long before the very thought of a court in Doriath was conceived but go off I guess._

"Excuse us for a minute," Dorneth touched Beleg's arm and the two of them walked a ways away from the youths.

"This is shaping up to be a disaster," Beleg massaged his temples.

"You can say that again," Dorneth muttered. "You better have talk with Thingol about how he's managing his court next you're down that way."

Beleg gave a short laugh. "Melian is the head of the inner court."

"Well give her a talking to then."

A corner of Beleg's mouth tipped, "You first." Both of them laughed.

"Alright, but what are we going to do about this girl? And Nibendir for that matter?" Dorneth asked, "These two issues seem connected somehow." She mused.

Beleg nodded. "I'm thinking we'll just put her on a horse and send her off."

Dorneth brushed her chin. "You really think that'll work?" A strange look came into her eyes and she quickly suggested, "Why not let her stay the night here if she seems so set on it? Besides, I think she's rather taken with you," Dorneth grinned at Beleg.

"What? Why would you say that?" Beleg asked, incredulous.

Dorneth rolled her eyes. "Beleg, I know you haven't exactly had a surplus of feminine interest, but trust me, she's got a crush and it's on you, my stiff, stern march warden." She leveled a finger at his face.

Beleg chewed the inside of his lip. "I'm not that stiff or stern."

"Oh, I know, but it's too late," Dorneth shook her head. "She's heard her share of romances, and as per first impressions, she's projected the brooding, stiff sort onto you, while she's the bright, perfect, protagonist determined to break down your walls." Dorneth spread a hand out above them, looking into the distance. "I can see it playing out now," She smiled. +

Beleg followed her gaze and swatted her hand back down. "Romances?" He questioned, a tilt to his head, and a quirk to his mouth and brow.

Daeron's the one to get a talking to next time I'm in Menegroth

Dorneth patted his arm. "What is it you think I do on my days off?" She started walking off. "I'll be with Dear little Nibendîr making sure he at least hits the targets while the daylight lasts. You help Calaniel get settled."

"You're turning into a burden on society," He called after her.

Her laugh was all he heard as she grabbed Nibendîr and started towards the range.

Calaniel turned her eyes towards him.

He sighed and ran a hand through silver locks. One night. Just one night.

He walked over to her. "It looks like you'll be spending the night here. I'll take to where you can rest a while." He started towards the lodge expecting her to follow.

The door was standing open. Inside, other Wardens were seeing to their weapons and gear, playing games, or just lounging and winding down for the night. Nobody was taxed enough to sleep, but the moon wasn't bright enough to do much outside in the night. The stars seemed to have dimmed since the coming of the sun and moon.

Beleg was greeted upon his entrance but Calaniel earned quiet curiosity.

He introduced her. "This is Calaniel, she was sent up with supplies, but her horse bolted, so she's staying here for the night."

He could see tinges of confusion in the faces of some. New moon or no, a ride to Menegroth shouldn't be hard. Other's shrugged it off and were ready to welcome her. She seemed shy all of a sudden and stayed close to Beleg as possible. He tried to be patient and ignored her for the most part as he talked with others and worked on mending torn clothes in the light of a dancing fire.

The night passed pleasantly for him, and Calaniel seemed to ease up eventually and allowed herself to be taught a game, though her gaze would often stray to the chief March-Warden and try to engage him in conversation, which he entertained easily enough. She was ignorant of what seemed like a ridiculous amount of things worth knowing, but he decided to attribute that to her little years.

In the morning, Nibendîr said he was going to work on archery again and invited Calaniel to join him. She looked to Beleg, but he had occupied himself with discussing training techniques with another Warden. She shrugged and let herself be lead to the range.

Despite his best efforts at interesting her in the art of archery, which he proclaimed himself to be a sight better at it than he actually was, Calaniel didn't even try to pretend engagement and kept looking back to where they'd come from.

At last, Nibendîr offered to teach her. Calaniel was dubious, but accepted, thinking it couldn't be that hard.

She took up the bow. Nibendîr handed her an arrow, showed her how to string it, and placing his hands over hers, helped her pull back the bow.

She concentrated on the target, but a loud crash by the lodge caused of them to start and turn towards it. In their surprise, the arrow let fly. It stuck in a tree, dangerously close to a tense Beleg who'd meant to observe for a few minutes before going on his way.

"Oh, I say, good thing there wasn't a love potion on there," Calaniel started to giggle.

Beleg took a deep breath and mentally rehearsed in his mind, _Melian, should you ever see the Lady Nienna again, you can tell her that this kid tried me once, but I responded with patience and restraint._

He decided to ignore that, and simply pluck the arrow from the tree and give Nibendîr another lecture on proper archery practice and safety for that matter. Before he could do so, Dorneth jogged up, wiping her hands on her jerkin.

"Sorry about that crash, someone tipped over the spear rack," She came up next to Beleg. "Nibendîr, it looks like you still need some tutelage. I'll take over." She took the arrow from Beleg and strode over. She snapped her fingers. "Oh, and you know what, some fresh berries would be nice with breakfast today. Beleg, why don't you show Caleniel?"

Caleniel brightened up immensely at the prospect. She came right to Beleg, "I'd be most happy to learn anything about berries." Her lashes fluttered, "I've been told I'm sweet like a berry."

Beleg mouthed to Dorneth, " _Burden on society_."

She sneered playfully in return.

He took a deep breath and stalked deeper into the trees, Calaniel following close behind. He gave terse directions on finding a certain kind of berry that wasn't quite ripe yet so it would be sour. And they'd all go to these three thorns in his side. She was busy between some trees and he took his moment of peace. _The birds are singing, the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day._

He felt better for a few minutes, and then heard a loud exclamation from Calaniel. He scanned the trees for her and found her frowning at a handful of pale berries, smacking her lips.

"These berries are bitter as anything, is it some sort of acquired taste?" She held them up.

He took one look at the berries in question and gasped. "Did you eat one?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I said they were bitter," a sly look entered her eyes, "Like my heart without you."

He didn't even bother about the questionable comment. He grabbed her arms, "Do you feel sick at all? Or dizzy?" He asked urgently.

She seemed too caught up in his attention for a moment to answer. "I, um... I feel fine,"

He relaxed. "Those are mistletoe berries. They're poisonous."

She gasped and let them drop. "Am I going to die?" and covered her mouth with her hands.

"You just ate one?"

She nodded.

He let go of her arms. "You'll be fine. Just be more careful before eating any plant you come across in the woods." He cautioned.

She just nodded again. "I am pretty durable."

He tightened the reigns of his exasperation yet again and described in more detail the berries they were trying to find. Their search led them deeper into the woods. Running water could be heard, and Calaniel begged they stop for a drink.

It was clear and cool with rocky shores. They slaked their thirst and Calaniel thought it'd be fun to splash in the water, which involved her teetering onto a trail on stepping stones to the middle of the stream. Beleg followed her, it wasn't deep, but a shallow stream can present more danger than a deep one if you fall in.

She got a touch overconfident in her balance and stepped on an algae covered stone. With a cry she lost her footing, beginning her crash course to the rocky bottom. She grabbed onto Beleg in desperation, but took him off guard, thus landing both in the water with a resounding splash.

Beleg was first to resurface and he immediately scoured the water for a foolish girl. Calaniel emerged just seconds later, sputtering and swiping water from her eyes.

"Are you alright?" He grabbed her searching hand to haul her up.

"I was scared there for a minute," She coughed.

He patted her back firmly to help her cough. "Be more careful in the future."

He was wearing a light shirt which, wet as it was, adhered to his chest. A fact that Calaniel was all too gleeful to notice.

Dark eyes met his bright green ones, and a smirk touched her lips, "You got it, love."

A groan started in the back of his throat. He cut it off and started to the shore, her close behind, as usual. However, her shoes were sodden and the grip unsure. Quickly forgetting Beleg's admonition, she took too large a step, losing her balance. A loud gasp was all Beleg heard behind him before he whirled to see a fallen Calaniel with a halo of blood appearing in the water around her.

"Calaniel!" He cried in alarm and was at her side in an instant. With nothing to grab onto, naught had been between the back of her head and one of the many rocks lining the stream bed.

Annoying as she and her attempts at pickup lines where, such a blow to the head was serious and he needed to take care of it. She was still conscious enough to grab his hand as soon as it was offered.

"Calaniel, can you hear me?" He fished out a kerchief that was tucked in his belt to staunch the bleeding. If she was tracking and the bleeding stopped soon, perhaps this wouldn't be too bad.

"I didn't think it would end this way," She gulped.

He felt for any other broken bones or sprains, but found nothing. "You'll have a headache, but--"

She cut him off with a finger to his lips. "Shh, it's alright. I'm alright with going like this."

He furrowed his brow. "Going? You're not going to--"

She gave a shaky sigh, "It's so peaceful."

"Calaniel, I think you're--" He started, but she continued.

"Really, it's the way I would have chosen. In this stream, here with you. Wouldn't have it any other way." She finished, sniffling.

Beleg decided to stop trying, seeing as she passed out just then. He picked her up with ease and took her back to camp.

Among the fuss that was caused, Nibendîr was quick to comment, "She fell? Cúthalion, you should have been more careful with her," his tone incredulous.

_Nienna I nearly threw hands with a two-hundred year old, but patience is one of my strong suites and I did not._

He laid her in a quiet corner in the lodge and tended to her. Dorneth found him there.

"So this is unfortunate, but guess what?" She offered as she plopped down next to him.

"What?" he asked, not looking up from bandaging Calaniel's head.

"Nibendîr says 'being a March-Warden isn't for him' and he would 'rather spend his life in more worthy pursuits'," She imitated his lofty manner during her paraphrase.

Beleg snorted. "Good, I guess. It would have been nice to toughen him up, but at least now we have an appropriate escort to send to Menegroth with Calaniel," He said wryly.

They laughed softly together.

Later that evening, Calaniel opened groggy eyes. Beleg still sat by her side.

"What happened?" Her words slurred.

Beleg pondered a moment before answering. "It looks like you fell for me."

Her eyes widened a bit before she squeezed them shut with a moan and turned her face away.

By the next morning she was recovered enough for her to journey with Nibendîr back to Menegroth.

~

"Alright, so that was wild." Beleg said with a low whistle as he and Dorneth watched Calaniel and Nibendîr's retreating figures the next day.

Dorneth nodded in agreement.

"For real, what was that about" He muttered mostly to himself.

Dorneth didn't hesitate to answer. "Remember about five hundred years ago, I was new to the Wardens? Lord Mablung was up here too and the two of us were discussing romances. When Mablung asked you what you thought of them, you dismissed them as silly and not worth the time it took to tell them. At this point in time I was at the peak of my romance craze and I also really admired you so it was quite the blow to younger me to hear my idol so quickly dismiss what my life was staked upon without question and I took it quite personally.

"Anyways, I do like you a lot, and now I can respect that you don't care for the romance genre and all, but as a matter of principle, I don't give up grudges that easily, even if they're effectively null. Honor and all that, you know. So when this young, impressionable girl shows up and takes a liking to you, you of all people, I knew. This is my chance. So upon realizing this I did everything I could to push you two together and enact your own stupid little romance."

A triumphant smile settled on her features as she took in Beleg's slackjawed indignation. "And it worked, by Lorien, it worked!"

Beleg couldn't form words for a solid moment so he bit his lip and stared at the ground for a while. Finally he looked up to meet her eyes. "That petty?"

She clapped his shoulder with a toothy grin. "That petty."


End file.
